TAJUK KURSUS : ENGLISH FOR WRITTEN COMMUNICATION

KOD KURSUS : OUMH1203

NAMA : Hairom binti Ibrahim

NO MATRIK : 740819026238001

NO KAD PENGENALAN : 740819-02-6238

NO TELEFON : 019 9815129

E- MAIL : hairomibrahim@yahoo.com

NAMA TUTOR : Edmund Robertson Linang

PUSAT : PPW Sarawak

SEMESTER : September 2011

ISI KANDUNGAN MUKA SURAT

1.0. INTRODUCTION 1-2

2.0. CONTENT 2-5

2.1. CLASSIFICATION OF CYBER CRIMES 3-4

2.2. COMPARISON OF CYBER CRIMES IN MALAYSIA 4-9

AND USA

2.3. SUGGESTIONS 9-10

3.0. CONCLUSION 10-11

4.0. REFERENCES 11

(i)

1. INTRODUCTION

Cybercrime has been a major concern for the global community. The

introduction, growth, and utilization of information and communication technologies

have been accompanied by an increase in criminal activities (Parker 1998). The Internet

is increasingly used as a tool and medium by transnational organised crime. Cybercrime

is an obvious form of international crime that has been affected by the global revolution

in ICTs.

One of the biggest criticisms to the definition of computer crime conducted by the

U.S Department of Justice (DOJ) is of its overly broad concept (Parker 1998). The (DOJ)

defines computer crime as ‘any violation of criminal law that involved the knowledge of

computer technology for its perpetration, investigation, or prosecution’. Thus, under this

definition, virtually any crime could be classified as a computer crime, simply because a

detective searched a computer data base as part of conducting an investigation.

Based on other terms, cybercrime, or computer crime, refers to any crime that

involves a computer and a network (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/computer_crime). This

includes anything from downloading illegal entertainments files such as music, video or

movie to stealing moneys from online bank accounts. Cybercrime also includes non-

monetary felony such as creating and sending viruses to other computers and many others

(http://www.techterms.com). The Oxford Reference Online defines cybercrime as crime

committed over the internet (http://www.oxfordreference.com) while the Encyclopedia

Britannica defines computer crime as any crime that committed by means of special

knowledge or expert use of computer technology.

Thus, no single definition of cybercrime is totally applicable. Nevertheless,

cybercrime can be divided into two categories (Carter 1995, Davis and Hutchison 1997).

The first category uses computer as the ‘tool’ of the crime. This includes high profile

crimes such as child pornography, child grooming, fraud, intellectual property, criminal

harassment, property violations and illegal trading of goods. The second category uses

computer as the ‘object’ of the crime. This type of crime are recently emerged and

specifically related with application of computer technology and the internet. This type of

crime includes hacking or unauthorized use of computer systems, creating and malicious

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sending of computer viruses and many others. Cybercrime is a national and international

issue and it has a serious impact on law enforcement at all levels. This includes federal

and state governments and their respective departments, as well as the police department.

2. CONTENT

2.1 CLASSIFICATION OF CYBERCRIMES

In general, computers play four roles in crimes: They serve as objects, subjects,

tools, and symbols. Computers are the objects of crime when they are sabotaged or

stolen. Computers play the role of subjects when they are the environment in which

technologies commit crimes. Computer virus attacks fall into this category. When

automated crimes take place, computers will be the subjects of attacks. The third role of

computers in crime is as tools-enabling criminals to produce false information or plan

and control crimes. Finally, computers are also used as symbols to deceive victims.

The subject of cybercrime can be divided into 4 major categories:

1) cybercrime against individual

2) cybercrime against property

3) cybercrime against organization

4) cybercrime against society

(http://www.reportcybercrime.com/classification.php).

Cybercrime against individual or persons includes various crimes such as child

pornography, email spoofing, spamming, cyber defamation and cyber stalking. The

trafficking, distribution, posting, and dissemination of obscene material including

pornography and indecent exposure, constitutes one of the most important cybercrimes

known today. This type of cybercrime which threatens to undermine the growth of the

younger generation as it also leave irreparable scars and injury on the younger generation,

if not controlled. The email spoofing crime is one in which the email header is forged so

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that the email appears to originate from one source but it was actually been sent from

another source. Spamming refers to sending multiple copies of unsolicited mails or mass

emails such as chain letters. Cyber defamation means someone publishes defamatory

matter about someone on a website or sends emails containing defamatory information.

Cyber stalking involves following a person’s movements across the internet by posting

unwanted messages (sometimes threatening), on the websites or board frequently visited

by the victim, entering and disturbing the chat rooms frequently used by the victim, or

constantly sending the victim with emails etc.

The second category is cybercrime against property. This includes computer

vandalism (destruction of others property), transmission of harmful programs, credit card

fraud, internet time theft, and intellectual property crimes such as software piracy,

copyright breach, trademarks violations, theft of computer source code and others.

The third category is cybercrime against organization. This includes crimes

against government, private firm, company or group of individual. The type of crimes

includes unauthorized accessing of computer, denial of service, virus attack, email

bombing, salami attack, logic bomb, Trojan horse, data diddling and many other cyber

terrorisms against organization. Unauthorized accessing of computer refers to accessing

the computer or network without permission from the owner. It can be in 2 forms: i)

unauthorized changing or deleting of data or ii) reads or copies confidential or proprietary

information, but the data is neither deleted nor changed. Denial of service happens when

an internet server is flooded with continuous false requests in order to deny legitimate

users to use the server or to crash the server.

A computer virus is a computer program that can infect other computer programs

by modifying them in such a way as to include a copy of it. Viruses can be file infecting

or affecting boot sector of the computer. Worms, unlike viruses, do not need the host to

attach themselves to. Email bombing includes sending larger numbers of mails to an

individual or company or to a mail servers thereby ultimately resulting into crashing. The

salami attack crime normally happens in the financial institutions or for the purpose of

committing financial crimes. An important characteristic of this type of crime is that the

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alteration is so small that it would normally go unnoticed. An example is the Ziegler case

where the crime was introduced in the bank’s system, which deducted 10 cents from

every account and deposited it into a particular account.

The logic bomb is an example of a dependent program. It means that the program

is created to do something only when a certain event (known as a trigger event) occurs.

Some viruses are also termed as logic bombs because they lie dormant throughout the

year and become active only on a particular date (e.g. the Chernobyl virus). The ‘Trojan

horse’, in software field means an unauthorized program which passively gains control

over another’s system by representing itself as an authorized program. The most common

form of installing a Trojan horse is through an email. Data diddling involves altering raw

data just before it is processed by a computer and then changing it back after processing

is completed.

The fourth category is cybercrime against society. These crimes will not only

affect any individual or organization but the society at large. These crimes includes

forgery, cyber terrorism, child pornography, financial crimes, sale of illegal trades, web

jacking, online gambling, indecent exposure and many others.

(http://www.bestarticleworld.com/2011/11/article-on-society-and-increasing-cyber.html).

In forgery crime, currency notes, revenue stamps, marks sheets and many others

can be forged using computers and high quality scanners and printers. Cyber terrorism

can generally be defined as an act of terrorism committed through the use of cyberspace

or computer resources (Parker 1983). For example, a simple propaganda in the internet

via email, blog, social or official websites, stating that there will be bomb attacks in a

particular place during a particular date or event can be considered as cyber terrorism. In

addition, cyber terrorisms also includes hacking activities directed towards individuals,

families, organized by groups within networks, tending to cause fear among people,

demonstrate power, collecting information relevant for ruining peoples' lives, robberies,

blackmailing and many others.

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For web jacking, the hackers gain access and control over the other website, and

they even change the content of the hacked website for fulfilling their objectives.

(http://www.cyberlawconsulting.com/cyber-case.html).

2.2 COMPARISON OF CYBERCRIMES IN MALAYSIA AND USA

The Malaysian Computer Crimes Act 1997 (CCA 1997) and the Communication

and Multimedia Act 1998 are among the many cyber laws enacted in Malaysia. In

Malaysia, the punishment for cybercrime may range from 3 years to 10 years

imprisonment and/or a monetary fine of between RM 25,000 to RM 150,000. However

stiffer penalties will be given if it is found that the guilty party had intention to cause

injury when committing the crime (SANS Institute 2002).

Strong working relationships between authorities in countries around the world

can help to solve cybercrimes cases quickly. The Malaysian Parliament website that was

hacked on December 2000 was traced to IP addresses in Brazil and France. The relevant

authorities in those countries were contacted for assistance in the investigation.

CyberSecurity Malaysia is not an enforcement agency but it is an agency under

Ministry of Science Technology and Innovation (MOSTI). CyberSecurity Malaysia only

provide support to enforcement agencies such as police and victims, in ensuring that

justice will prevail regardless of the "space" where a particular crime is conducted.

CyberSecurity Malaysia also assisted in cyber forensics and analysis - such as analysing

evidence and providing expert witnesses for relevant cases.

Cases handled by CyberSecurity Malaysia.

In 2008, CyberSecurity Malaysia handled a total of 2,123 incidents, more than

100 per cent increase compared with 2007. But that rate was an increase in incidents and

it may not correlate with cybercrime rates

(http://www.cybersecurity.my/en/media_centre). Malaysia saw the number of reported

cybercrimes rise to 5,181 this year (2010) from 2,642 in 2009 (New Straits Times Press,

27 October 2010). In the first quarter of 2011, 3,563 incidents were reported to the

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Cyber999 Security Incident Help Centre and of those, 400 phishing sites targeting

Malaysian banks were reported. (http://www.malaysiandigest.com/news/21919-

cybersecurity- malaysia-intensifies-fight-against-cybercrime.html)

Table 1 (a) and (b) showing statistic derived from CyberSecurity Malaysia for cybercrime statistic year 2010 in Malaysia. ( http://www.mycert.org.my/en/services/statistic/mycert/2010/main/detail/725/index.html )

Table 1 (a)

Table 1 (b)

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Table 1: Comparison of cybercrimes statistics between Malaysia and USA

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Categories Malaysia USA

1. Statistic of selected

categories of

cybercrimes in

Malaysia and USA.

Percentage derived from the statistic according to types of cybercrime in Malaysia.

1. Content related - 0.48 %

2. Denial of service - 0.82 %

3. Cyber harassment - 5.18 %

4. Fraud - 27.34 %

5. Intrusion - 26.70 %

6. Intrusion attempt - 8.47 %

7. Malicious codes - 14.82 %

8. Spam - 15.67 %

9. Vulnerabilities report - 0.52 %

Main supporting point : Statistic was derived from Federal Bereau of Investigation (FBI) in collaboration with the Internet Crime Complaint Centre (ic3) for cybercrime statistic year 2010 in USA (http://scamfraudalert.wordpress.com/2010/03/13/fbi-2009- cybercrime-statistics/)

1. Non-delivery Payment/Merchandise - 14.4%

2. FBI-Related Scams - 13.2%

3. Identity Theft - 9.8%

4. Computer Crimes - 9.1%

5. Miscellaneous Fraud - 8.6%

6. Advance Fee Fraud - 7.6%

7. Spam - 6.9%

8. Auction Fraud - 5.9%

9. Credit Card Fraud - 5.3%

10. Overpayment Fraud - 5.3%

2. Comparison

between fraud and

spam percentage

between in Malaysia

and USA.

Fraud - 27.34 % and spam - 15.67 % Fraud - 32.7 % and spam - 6.9 %

3. Percentage of

cybercrime for the past

11 years in Malaysia

and USA

Percentage of cybercrime from the year 2000 to the year 2010 in Malaysia (http://www.mycert.org.my/en/services/statistic/mycert).

Year Numbers of complaints

received

Percentage (%)

2000 503 1.3 (lowest)

2001 932 2.4

2002 739 1.91

2003 4295 11.08

2004 15286 39.42 (highest)

2005 835 2.15

2006 1372 3.54

2007 1038 2.68

2008 2123 5.47

Percentage of cybercrime from the year 2000 to the year 2010 in USA.

The graf was derived from Federal Bereau of Investigation (FBI) in collaboration with the Internet Crime Complaint Centre (ic3).

Year Numbers of complaints

received

Percentage (%)

2000 16838 0.8 (lowest)

2001 50412 2.42

2002 75064 3.61

2003 124515 5.99

2004 200449 9.64

2005 231493 11.14

2006 207492 9.98

2007 206884 9.95

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The types of cybercrime are different in comparison between the two countries

where fraud crime was divided into several types as compared to only one in Malaysia.

The fraud percentage in Malaysia is 27.34 % and the spam percentage is 15.67 % while

the fraud percentage in USA is 32.7 % and the spam percentage is 6.9 %. The fraud in the

USA is in various types such as overpayment fraud, credit card fraud, auction fraud,

advance fee fraud and miscellaneous fraud. Thus, fraud percentage in USA is observed to

be higher than in Malaysia. However, spam percentage is higher in Malaysia than in

USA. This means, fraud cases or complaints in developed country is higher than non

developed country. Normally, spam cases are a beginning to fraud cases.

USA is higher than Malaysia in the numbers of complaints. This is due to the

difference in:

1. Numbers of citizen

2. Numbers of computer or internet users

3. Users' awareness regarding cybercrime

Nevertheless, although USA is higher in the number of complaints regarding

cybercrime, the percentage is lower than in Malaysia when refer to the percentage of

highest and lowest complaints from 2000 to 2010. This is due to:

1. End users' awareness on cybercrime is higher in USA than in Malaysia.

2. The roles played by cyber security agency in USA are better than in Malaysia.

3. Lack of cybercrimes researches in Malaysia than in USA.

4. The cyber technology in preventing and curbing cybercrimes in the USA is more

advanced than in Malaysia.

2.3 SUGGESTIONS

Suggestions to curb or reduce cybercrimes in Malaysia:

1. Malaysia government should tighthen the enforcement of Computer Crime Act 1997

and the Communication and Multimedia Act 1998.

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2. Malaysia government should allow more cybercrimes investigators agencies such as

CyberSecurity Malaysia to take part in preventing cybercrimes in Malaysia.

3. People or end users of the Internet or computer should be educate and aware of the

cyber security.

4. Malaysia government should increase the numbers of cyber professionals to improve

the cyber security in Malaysia.

3. CONCLUSION

Cybercrime is regarded nowadays as an international form of globally organized

crime transgressed n beyond any national boundaries. It can be concluded that the major

reasons for the rapid growth of cybercrime activity is the globalization of technology and

the revolutionary advancement of ICTs. Broadband, wireless technologies, mobile

computing and remote access, internet applications and services, software and file

transfer protocols are amongst the tools utilized by cybercriminals to commit their crime.

Thus, the increase in criminal activity using ICT technologies deserves further and

immediate attention from the global community. This should include endorsement of

necessary legislative requirements and implementing effective technological and

enforcement tools that reduce ICT-facilitated criminal activities. By and large, a global

principle of public policy should be implemented to combat and prevent this form of

organized crime. These efforts could be done through raising global awareness and

increasing literacy rates, coordinating legislative efforts on national, regional and global

levels, and establishing a high level global network of cooperation between national,

regional, and international enforcement agencies and police forces. Overall, the cyber

crime rate in Malaysia is still low compares to the USA and exhibit differences in its

polarity (e.g. spam and fraud activities). Moreover, cyber security in Malaysia is steadily

growing in order to combat the cybercriminal activities effected the nation. However,

much more efforts are still needed to improve cybercrime security in Malaysia. In line

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with that, all related agencies should combined forces and strengthen their alliance in

order to prevent and reduce the numbers of cybercrimes in our country.

4. REFERENCES.

New Straits Times Press, 27 October 2010

Parker, D. (1998). Fighting Computer Crime: For Protecting Information USA: John Wiley, p. 10.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_crime.

www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html

http://www.reportcybercrime.com/classification.php

http://www.bestarticleworld.com/2009/12/article-on-society-and-increasing-cyber.html

http://www.cyberlawconsulting.com/cyber-case.html

http://www.cybersecurity.my/en/media_centre

http://www.malaysiandigest.com/news/21919-cybersecurity-malaysia-intensifies-fight-against-cybercrime.html

http://www.mycert.org.my/en/services/statistic/mycert/2010/main/detail/725/index.html

http://scamfraudalert.wordpress.com/2010/03/13/fbi-2009-cybercrime-statistics

http://www.techterms.com.

Total number of words = 2635

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